John Mack - Newtown Supervisor
2025 Newtown Township Road Program Out for Bids

2025 Newtown Township Road Program Out for Bids

[UPDATE 4/23/2025]: Bid Awarded to James Morrissey, Inc. for 2025 #NewtownPA Road Program. At the 23 April 2025 BOS meeting, Newtown supervisors awarded the 2025 road contract to James Morrissey, Inc. who came in with the low bid of  $842,132.85 to repave 2.51 miles of roads.

At the 26 March 2025 Newtown Township Board of Supervisors (BOS) meeting, supervisors authorized the 2025 Road Program BID to be advertised. As I noted in my 25 March 2025 Meet Mack Monday Zoom meeting, the approved BID included 1.67 miles of roads to be repaved as part of the BASE BID and 3.48 miles of roads as part of the ALTERNATE BID (see slide below).

The Authorized BID Opening now scheduled for 21 April 2025.

The BID was posted to the PennBID website on 2 April 2025. According to the 3 April 2025 Engineer’s Report, the bids will be opened and read aloud at 10:00 AM on 4/21/2025 at the office of the Township Engineer (RVE), 1010 Stony Hill Road, Suite 175, Yardley, PA 19067.

Meanwhile, the posted BID is different than the one approved by the BOS (see slide above and this PDF file), specifically with regard to the BASE BID and number of roads in the ALTERNATE BID list as shown below:

BASE BID ROADS

  1. Poppy Court & Snowdrop Place, entire length
  2. Reserved (?)
  3. Wexley Drive, entire length
  4. Cliveden Drive, from 15 Cliveden Dr. to 105 Cliveden Dr.
  5. Meridian Circle, entire length
  6. High Street, entire length
  7. Willow Court, entire length

I’m not sure what “Reserved” means. It replaces “South State Street, from Newtown Bypass to Lincoln Avenue,” which was on the authorized BASE BID list and is now on the ALTERNATE BID list, which is much longer than the list that was authorized by the BOS on 26 March 2025 (30 versus 25 in the approved list).

I note that the 2024 BID did not include a “Reserved” item in the list of roads, which were EXACTLY the roads authorized by the BOS at the time. Why the 2025 list of roads in the BID documents differs from the list authorized by the BOS is a question I asked the Township Manager. When I get an answer, I will report it here.

UPDATE (4/8/25): The Township Manager informed me that because PECO is planning on doing construction/gas line work on S. State Street later this year, S. State Street was moved to the ALTERNATE list as a “precaution until we have a better idea of what PECO will be doing. It can still be awarded if PECO's work is not so intrusive that it ruins a newly paved road,” Rather than renumber all of the streets on the plan and throughout the bid documents, it was simpler to leave number “2.” as “Reserved”.

The Newtown Engineer added this: “When I put together the document for the board packet for last meeting, I inadvertently left off Nathan Court, Gaylord Court, Kanon Court, and Walton Court.”

In my humble opinion, the proper procedure would have been to notify the Board PRIOR to posting on PennBID rather than me having to discover this change AFTER THE FACT. I keep people informed about BOS decisions and I had posted the original list of roads. While I am sure the added roads are not an issue, I just prefer NOT to distribute what subsequently turned out to be MISINFORMATION that I now have to correct.

In any case, let’s look at the roads in the 2025 ALTERNATIVE BID (roads in RED were added without informing the BOS):

ALTERNATE BID ROADS

  1. North Drive, entire length
  2. Columbine Circle, entire length
  3. Jonquil Drive, entire length
  4. Thistle Lane, entire length
  5. Jasmine Court, entire length
  6. Pansy Court, entire length
  7. Shamrock Court, entire length
  8. Hibiscus Place, entire length
  9. Balsam Court, entire length
  10. Myrtle Place, entire length
  11. Bucks Meadows Lane, entire length
  12. Union Street, entire length
  13. Friends Lane, entire length
  14. Walker Lane, entire length
  15. Everett Drive, entire length
  1. Remy Place, entire length
  2. Leslie Place, entire length
  3. Andover Place, entire length
  4. Carmel Place, entire length
  5. Derby Place, entire length
  6. Adrian Place, entire length
  7. Randolph Court, entire length
  8. Partridge Court, entire length
  9. Northrup Court, entire length
  10. Martin Court, entire length
  11. Nathan Court, entire length
  12. Gaylord Court, entire length
  13. Kanon Court, entire length
  14. Walton Court, entire length
  15. South State Street, from Newtown
    Bypass to House #668
Maps

Miles of Roads Paved Per Year (2019 – 2024)

Roads require repaving approximately every 20 years. Newtown must repave about 4 miles of its approximately 80 miles of roads each year just to maintain current conditions.

For the past 6 years, on average, only 2.9 miles of roads have been repaved per year!

In 2024 1.99 miles of road were repaved for $656,779 - $330,040 per mile. In 2025 it is estimated that each mile of road repaved will cost $381K to $496K; Average = $439K/mile.

According to information provided by the Township Manager, the total budgeted for the 2025 road program includes the following amounts from the noted funds/line items:

  • General Fund, 2025 Budget, page B10 - $30,000
  • Capital Fund, 2025 Budget, page B22 - $90,000. This was included as part of the 2024 Debt Issuance, so is being funded through debt service. The Debt Service fund itself appropriately only includes expenditures related to issuance and repayment of debt.
  • Highway Aid Fund, 2025 Budget, page B26 - $725,000. These are the Liquid Fuels Program monies.

TOTAL Budget 2025 Road Program: $845,000.

With a budget of $845,000, we can expect only about 1.9 miles to be repaved in 2025, which is about the same as 2024. The end result is that the overall condition of township roads is deteriorating, not improving! NOTE: On 23 April 2025, the BOS awarded the project to James Morrissey, Inc., which came in with the low bid of  $842,132.85 to repave 2.51 miles of roads or $335,511 per mile.

Posted on 03 Apr 2025, 01:57 - Category: Roads